A Thousand Gardens in Africa - In 2010, Slow Food launched a project to support the creation of a thousand sustainable food gardens with the Terra Madre communities across Africa. The gardens have been developed in schools, villages and urban fringe areas, starting in nations where our network is already strong - such as Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Ethiopia, Senegal and Tanzania. The gardens cultivate local varieties using sustainable and organic methods, and intercrop vegetables with fruit trees and medicinal herbs. Importantly, the project is promoting seed exchange among the communities in order to preserve biodiversity and enhance farmers' autonomy.
Alliance Between Chefs and Slow Food Presidia - The Alliance was launched in Italy in 2009, and currently unites more than 300 restaurant chefs who are committed to supporting the Slow Food Presidia and local small-scale producers, the guardians of biodiversity, by using their products in their menus. The project spread to the Netherlands in 2012 and Morocco in 2013, and will soon be arriving in other countries around the world.
Ark of Taste – A project to rediscover, catalog, describe and publicize forgotten foods, the Ark of Taste was created by the Slow Food association in 1996. Today the international list includes more than 1,100 products from more than 50 countries that are endangered by industrial agriculture, environmental degradation and standardization. Slow Food is currently working to board thousands of new products on the Ark, tracking them down in every corner of the planet thanks to nominations being received from citizens with an interest in food biodiversity.
Cittaslow - Slow Food has encouraged the growth of the Cittaslow (Slow Cities) movement. Cittaslow is an autonomous group of towns and cities committed to improving the quality of life of their citizens, especially with regard to food. Participating cities adhere to a series of guidelines to make them more pleasant places to live: e.g., closing the town center to traffic one day a week and adopting infrastructure policies that maintain the characteristics of the town. Slow Cities seek to safeguard traditional foods, creating spaces and occasions for direct contact between quality producers and co-producers. Slow Cities have sprung up everywhere from Norway to Brazil, with several dozen in Italy alone.
convivium (plural ‘convivia’) – A local Slow Food chapter. Each convivium organizes a number of events each year, ranging from simple dinners and tastings, where our members come together to share the everyday joys of food, to visits to local producers and farms, conferences and discussions, film festivals, taste education courses for children and adults, promoting CSA’s and Earth Markets, and many other events and projects to get to know local foods and producers and to educate others about them. Convivia are the backbone of Slow Food and they are made possible only through the members, who volunteer their time and energy. Today, there are more than 1,500 convivia worldwide.
convivium leader – The elected leader of a convivium.
co-producer – Collectively our consumer choices can bring great change to how food is cultivated, produced and distributed. To highlight this, Slow Food coined the term co-producer - a conscious consumer who goes beyond the passive role of consuming and takes an interest in those who produce our food, how they produce it and the problems they face in doing so. In actively supporting food producers, we become part of the production process.
daily food – Phrase used to refer to everyday nutrition. Slow Food promotes a daily diet based upon environmentally and socially responsible products.
Earth Markets - Farmers' markets that have been established according to guidelines that follow the Slow Food philosophy. These community-run markets are social meeting points, where local producers offer healthy, quality food directly to consumers at fair prices and guarantee environmentally sustainable methods. In addition, they are focused on preserving the local food culture and biodiversity of edible plants and breeding.
eco-gastronomy – A recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet and the fact that our food choices have a major impact on the health of the environment and society.
food communities – A group of small-scale producers and others, united by the production of a particular food and closely linked to a geographic area. Coined by Slow Food in 2004 for the first Terra Madre meeting, it reflects a new idea of local economy based on food, agriculture, tradition and culture. Food community members are involved in small-scale and sustainable production of quality products. Today the Terra Madre network is made up of more than 2,000 food communities across 150 countries.
good, clean and fair – The three tenets of Slow Food’s approach to food and food production, as outlined in the Manifesto on Quality.
Good: a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;
Clean: food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;
Fair: accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers.
learning community – A group of people who come together around an educational activity or program concerning sustainable food.
local economy – An economic system that encourages the purchasing of locally produced goods and services over those produced further away. A new idea of ‘local economies' based on food, agriculture, tradition and culture underlies the Slow Food philosophy as we believe the micro-economies of local communities have the potential to work in a way that is financially rewarding and respectful of surrounding ecosystems, human health and cultures.
neo-gastronomy – Gastronomy as a multidisciplinary approach to food that enables us to make food choices for our palate, environment and society.
Presidium (plural Presidia) – Presidia are projects run by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity to directly help groups of artisanal food producers. They sustain quality production at risk of extinction, protect unique regions and ecosystems, recover traditional processing methods, safeguard native breeds and local plant varieties.
taste education – Slow Food’s approach to food education based on the reawakening and training of the senses and the study of all aspects of food and its production.
Terra Madre - a network launched by Slow Food in 2004, to bring together people who wish to preserve and promote sustainable methods of food production that respects nature, traditions and communities. The Terra Madre food communities put into practice Slow Food’s ideas about quality based on the three concepts of good, clean and fair.
The network is made up of small farmers and producers as well as cooks, academics, consumers, non-government organizations and youth who come together to discuss how to improve the food system collaboratively at meetings are held at the global, regional and local level. The many resulting projects and exchanges are promoting the sharing of knowledge and best practice approaches around the world.
Terra Madre Day – Celebrated by the global Slow Food and Terra Madre network on December 10 to promote the benefits of eating local, sustainably produced food. First held in 2009 to mark Slow Food’s 20th anniversary.
Terra Madre regional meetings – Terra Madre network gatherings held at a national or regional level, i.e. Terra Madre Brazil, Terra Madre Ireland, Terra Madre Tuscany.
Terra Madre World Meeting of Food Communities – Biennial gathering of the Terra Madre network, held in Turin, Italy since 2004, which brings together more than 5,000 delegates from across 150 countries.
University of Gastronomic Sciences – Co-founded in 2003 by Slow Food and the Italian regions of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, the school’s innovative approach is to create a new understanding of gastronomy, linking the act of eating with the act of producing, along with all the phases in between. Four programs follow a multidisciplinary learning model, merging science with humanities, sensory training with communications, classroom study with field seminars (including travel to five continents). Graduates move on to positions in food production and transformation, tourism, retail, consumer education, non-profits and NGOs, communication and journalism, and academia.
